Update 08, June 3, 2006    LAST   NEXT
 

I suppose the dust has settled about enough by now in my brain and it’s the weekend. We are looking forward to Sam being home for a couple days as she will be coming to Jesse’s  Calgary Children’s Choir concert and Awards Ceremony on Sunday with Betty, Lisa & me. Jesse will get her 5 Year Medal! Then, in the evening, my sister Millie and my nephew Danny and his wife Donna from Regina will be coming to  visit us.

 

The treatment last weekend kind of did me in. My mouth was sore and due to fluid buildup in the lungs I was coughing a lot and was very much fatigued. The coughing is pretty well gone although I’m still expectorating a lot. (too much information??). And I have some antibiotics for the tongue so that’s better as well. I guess it’s a sort of primer, a test, for what’s about to come when the chemo part starts. I uploaded a new calendar the other day but I guess I screwed up a link. An outline of Plan  B can be viewed now.

 

At the BMT on June 8, I will be administered an IV drip of the chemotherapy drug, Cyclophoshamide as well as a few other goodies. I’ll be there several hours and will go home with lower blood counts than normal so consequently I will be somewhat immunosuppressed. Not a good time to be exposed to any bugs! It’s the first part of what is called Mobilization Chemotherapy. I go back in June 13 for ‘pre-medications’ as the first precautionary measures against possible allergic (anaphylactic) reaction from Stemgen (SCF), another growth factor drug that will be administered in the same way as the Neupogen (G-CSF). I’ll be started on two different antihistamines as well as given a puffer and an Epipen, just in case. That’s the reason I’ll need to be admitted to Unit 57 the next day when the injections begin. I’ll be on a 6 hour watch the first day and 3 - 4 hour watches for several days later in case of a reaction. Here’s hoping there won’t be any. (well, duh). All of this should really kick start them sticky stem cells and herd ‘em into the blood stream. Two Neupogen and one Stemgen shot each day. Blood counts will be looked at everyday to determine when the harvest will commence. Quite a few rows to hoe.

 

It has to be at least 3 weeks in between the chemo treatments and in my case it will be 4 as I will be admitted on July 5, again with the same plan as before, for the high-dose chemo and stem cell transplant. So I get a nice long break in between. Unfortunately, all of this means that Lisa will not be going to Japan with Jesse for the choir tour. She will stay home with her husby. I love her so much. What a thing for her to endure. I expect to be home for recuperation, recovery, rest, relaxation and perhaps a little rock & roll before the end of July and before Jesse gets home from JapanJ

 

I ordered Giorgio Armani frames and Progressive Vision lenses a couple weeks ago with a new prescription. They are my first change of frames in over 20 years so I have new look! I got them yesterday and love 'em! I still have contacts which I will wear from time to time but I'm told that after the high-dose chemo they will be a no-no, hence my motivation to get the new specs asap.